What is remission?
This means your blood sugar levels return to normal without the need for medication. Weight loss results in a normalisation of fat levels in both the liver and the pancreas.
How can I acheive remission?
There are 3 main ways to achieve remission.
- Low-calorie diet
- Low-carbohydrate diet
- Bariatric surgery
What is a low-calorie diet?
A low-calorie diet is made up of around 800-1000 calories per day. It is a short term diet of meal replacements (often soups or shakes) or very small portions of normal food. You would normally have meal replacements for about 12 weeks, then gradually reintroduce normal healthy food again. Research from the The Diabetes UK-funded ‘DiRECT’ trial saw almost half of those who went on a low calorie diet achieve remission of their Type 2 diabetes after one year. A quarter of participants achieved a 15kg or more weight loss, and of these, 86% put their Type 2 diabetes into remission https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about_us/news/weight-loss-type-2-diabetes-remission-direct-latest
You need to talk to your doctor before starting a low-calorie diet so you can be sure it is safe and could work for you.
At Eat Well Now we are specialists in diabetes and can help you on this type of diet.
What is a low carbohydrate diet?
A low carbohydrate diet limits the amount of carbohydrates in your diet and focusses on including a higher amount of protein and fat. A low carbohydrate diet results in the body using fat stores for energy instead of glucose which leads to faster weight loss. A low-carbohydrate diet is typically under 130g carbohydrates per day. This reduced calorie intake from carbohydrate should be replaced with protein and healthy fats such as meat, fish, dairy, eggs, nuts, avocado etc.
Low-carbohydrate diets can cause side effects such as fatigue, constipation, brain fog and headaches. This type of diet is not suitable for everyone and it’s important to talk to your doctor before embarking on such a diet.
However, evidence shows that this type of diet can help people with type 2 diabetes manage their weight, blood glucose levels and risk of heart disease in the short term. Here is a link to some research supporting the use of low carbohydrate diets https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.m4743